That's all, Your Honour!: Feb. 12-18

1. Last Monday, an Israeli diplomat's car was bombed. Apparently, motor cyclist planted it below the car. A similar attempt occured on the same day in Georgia too! Israel was quick to accuse Iran of masterminding these bombings. Iran was quick enough to reject this allegation. Police are saying that the bomb would have exploded within 3-5 seconds of attaching it to the car, and are looking at CCTV footage from nearby areas. The blast location is ~500 metres from the PM's residence, and this is what is worrying security experts! How can someone just plant a bomb and get away with it just so close to the PM's residence! And that too - this happened to be a planned attack on an Israeli diplomat! Investigations are still on - and knowing the speed at which we work - we can be rest assured they will go on and on! 

2. In another brutal incident, Italian navymen fired at and killed two of our citizens off the Kerala coast. These personnel were on an oil tanker, and saw a small boat approaching their ship. Without any provocation, these personnel started firing and killed two fishermen on that boat. The ship is now parked at the coast, but curiously no arrests have been made yet. Italians authorities tried to tell us that there was provocation and hence they fired - but that turned out to be entirely false. This incident also happened on our waters - so the matter is pretty serious. However, we are yet to arrest any crew member - not even a single arrest has been made so far! 

3. It's been a slow week. Not much to debate/discuss about. However, to end with - sample this news! The son of the President of India has been caught with cash of Rs. 1 crore! Last week, elections were held for 10 municipalities in Maharashtra, and the son who is also an Congress MLA was caught with this cash tells the media that this was meant for "poor candidates" in the elections! That's all, your honour! 

That's all, Your Honour! : Sept. 4-10

The above picture is a snapshot of the headline by Mid-Day after the Delhi bomb blasts last week. This was perhaps the only newspaper which reflected the sense of disgust amongst the citizens. In another gruesome incident, a powerful bomb went off outside gate no:5 of Delhi High Court, killing a total of 13 citizens and injuring about 100. And the drill was then followed, without any hiccups. First the government condemned it. Then the Home Minister said intelligence was given to Delhi police in July, but there was no specific intelligence. Later in the evening, our Prime Minister says these "cowardly" incidents will not make us succumb to the pressure of terrorism. Not make us succumb, Mr. Prime Minister? Under your watch, we have had about 18 terror attacks - and you had the courage to say we will not succumb?? Well, what is the point blaming you? There is a compliant media that will make sure your reputation is not hurt. There is a sleeping vote block will not come out to vote. As long as they wouldn't care, why would it matter?

And then our Home Minister addresses a press conference. Says there was a delay in procruring CCTVs. Then says, there have been just three incidents on terror under his watch. When the Pune blast happened, it was said that it was first blast after so many months post 26/11. Then when the varanasi blasts happened, they were termed minor incidents. Then when the Mumbai blasts happened, it was "just" the second incident. And now the Delhi blasts happened, it is "just" the third incident. Home Minister also said there is no intelligence failure. Home Minister also said that BJP does not know how to behave in bipartisan manner. I don't get it - what just is the BJP expected to do here? Nod it's head while the arrogant Home Minister reels out crap like this?

It feels so sad to see those dead bodies. Even more sad is the fact that many innocent families are suffering. It is mind-numbing to think that pretty much any place is cities is unsafe, and any disaster can strike you. And in return, we might get a "this is just the fourth incident" statement. That's all, your honour!

That's all, Your Honour! : May 22-28

Back to blogging after a hectic 2 months of travelling :)

1. The trial of David Headley began in a Chicago court this week. For those who are not sure about who this guy is, an old blogpost explaining the obvious case of David Headley. David Headley has been revealing a lot of stuff, that is news to the world, but not to us in India. He has detailed how ISI and LeT were actively involved in planning and executing the 26/11 attacks. Evidence was also presented, detailing cash flows, which again confirmed ISI's hand in these attacks. David Headley also informed the court that he was inspired into Jihad by Hafiz Saeed - the same Hafiz Saeed whom Pakistan refuses to arrest and even tells us that he is involved in charity work! Our Prime Minister has again reiterated his willingness to continue talking to Pakistan, whilst acknowledging that there is nothing new in Headley's revelations! He even has sagely advice for Pakistan - "It goes without saying that we must use every possible opportunity to talk to Pakistan and convince them that terror as an instrument of state policy is simply not acceptable to people in the civilised world as a whole." If a country needs "convincing" that terror is undesirable in this world, pray what exactly will you "discuss" with that country?

2. The "nataka" in Karnataka seems to be never ending. A recent Supreme Court judgement found the Speaker's action in disqualifying 11 BJP and 5 Independent MLAs wrong. This prompted the most hyper active governor in India to recommend President's rule in the state! This, despite the fact that these 11 disqualified BJP MLAs have decided to come back to the party and support the Chief Minister. Somehow, our hyperactive governor still found reason to recommend President's rule in the state! He met the Prime Minister on a Saturday and recommended President's rule next day. It is impossible to believe that this topic did not come up for discussion between both these eminences. Anyways, the central government has rejected the Governor's report. Despite the Governor's many such irresponsible actions, the Home Minister enlightens us that the governor is just doing his "job"!

3. UPA has completed 7 years in power. Actually, 2 years in their second stint. They name this UPA 2.0 and they kind of want us to believe that UPA 1.0 never existed. So we are talking about two years in power for UPA. And in these two years, the countrymen have been made to see and hear scam numbers that they cannot even imagine in their wildest of their dreams. With excellent support from the English TV media, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi have managed to come out squeaky clean in this whole process. Even the 2G scam is now being made to look like something the DMK did without the knowledge of any other coalition partner. Mere rhetoric from the Prime Minister and Sonia that "we will root out corruption" hogs headlines, as if we are to trust them. Leaving Corruption aside, there has not been even one single big reform that this government has carried out. Mere status quo is being maintained. When UPA 2.0 took over, we were all told that since the Left parties don't have control on the government like the UPA1.0, there will be big ticket reforms. And after 2 years, the PM still talks about the "need" for reforms. His speeches sound like as if he has nothing to do with governance in the country! However, the government seems to be not worried too much, given that the opposition is yet to pick up any strength amongst the masses. Since there is no alternative, UPA2.0 thinks UPA3.0 is a mere formality! That's all, your honour!

The Obvious Case of David Headley

David Coleman Headley, was formerly known as Daood Gilani. His dad is a former Pak diplomat and mom is an American. He is an American Citizen. His original name, as mentioned before, is Daood Gilani. He changed it to David Headley because that will make his travel across the subcontinent easy.

So why did he want to travel around the subcontinent? Because he was working for a terrorist organisation called Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT). Being an American Citizen with a name like David Headley, he was pretty sure that his frequent visits to India and Pakistan will just go un-noticed. And he was right. Despite his passport having multiple instances on entry into India, Pak etc, none of the immigration officers here in India or in US even doubted his instances even once.

So what work did he do for LeT? He came to India, did a detailed recce of many many places and submitted his videos to the LeT in Pakistan. Do you want to take a guess at what some of those locations?

1. Taj, Mumbai.
2. CST, Mumbai.
3. Trident, Mumbai.
4. German Bakery, Osho Ashram etc, Pune.

Do these names ring a bell? The famed 26/11 attacks took place at the top 3 locations. The recent Pune blast happened at German Bakery. This is just a list of some places. I don't know about the other places he went to.

Recent investigative reports also revealed that David Headley was also an FBI agent, possibly a CIA agent too. So basically a double agent. Worked for the FBI and the LeT. Ofcourse, it has neither been officially confirmed nor denied that he worked for FBI.

So, now lets connect the dots (duh! like there is anything to connect there). So essentially, David Headley is a prime conspirator in terror attacks carried out on India. He is one of those chiefly responsible for killing of the citizens of India. As also some citizens of the US, Israel etc. If anything, the US should have atleast given us the access to interrogate him. Afterall, we allowed FBI to interogate Kasab within weeks of his arrest.

But hey, what does the US do? It arrests him, but does NOT give us access to interogate him. It enters into a plea bargain with him. Yes, you read it right. It entered into a plea bargain with a TERRORIST. He pleads guilty, doesn't get the death sentence and no more interrogations. However, the kind souls that the US government officials are - they have told us that we can have video conferences with him in Indian courts. Rejoice people, for the US has been so magnanimous in offering us this wonderful facility.

So the US had to do this to protect its secrets, for he was an FBI agent too, apparently. The war on terror has just become a joke now. If you are wondering what will the Indian government do now... please, let's not even get into that.

David Headley is a Terrorist. Nothing more, nothing less. But hey, the obvious case of Daood Gilani ends with a plea bargain! Shame on the US(the degree of superlatives here really does not matter today - we have been insulted, and that's the truth).

PS: Links to all the claims above are available on the net.

'To the last bullet' ...

'To the last bullet' is a book written by Vinita Kamte, wife of Ashok Kamte, IPS who was killed in the horrific 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2009. This book is a must read for all those who wish to know the rot in our system. It was plain disgusting to read how the police and the government are just so hell bent on covering up so many facts about the investigation. Even a post mortem report was denied to Vinita Kamte - just goes about to show how rotten the system is.

Her RTI reports also show details of the conversation the officers had with the control room on that fateful night, and you will be plain shocked to know about the laxity of the system. I would have revealed more here, but it will not do justice to the awesome job Vinita Kamte and her friends have done.

The book also talks about the various postings of Ashok Kamte, and how he dealt with situations. His stint as commisioner of Solapur was an excellent read, and given that I visited that town once, could visualize places where the action was.

Hats off to Ashok Kamte for his dedication in serving the country and hats off to Vinita Kamte for her awesome perseverance. Alas, the political system is so rotten that they have chosen to ignore these findings too.

That's all, your honour!: Feb 7-13

1. Just a week after the JuD chief publicly declared that Pune is one of their targets, there was a bomb blast in Pune! This is very similar to the Gokul Chat bomb blast in Hyderabad 3 years ago. The target was the famous German Bakery in Pune. 9 people have died and 60 of them have been injured.This was just 200 yards away from the Osho ashram. And Osho Ashram is one of the places that David Headley recce'd ! All this information was just coming out yesterday after the bomb blast! The centre has announced that intelligence was passed onto the Maharashtra government about Pune being a possible terror target, but as always the deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra says the intel was not specific! Yeah right, they should have given the door number, time and method of execution so that these buggers could have acted.

It is very clear that the political leadership of the state has utterly failed in assesing the intel reports. The Home Minister of Maharashtra, R.R.Patil has again hopelessly failed in protecting the lives of citizens. What just stopped the government from alerting all popular places in Pune of a possible attack, when a mainstream newspaper published such crucial information? And finally to ignore the complete diversion of police force towards the security of a film as a possible cause cannot be ruled out, howmuch ever a famous journo from NDTV lives in self denial.

2. Another sad incident that occured this week was that 17 jawans were killed in two avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir. More than 300 were trapped and succesfully rescued too.

3. Finally the terms of the Justice Sri Krishna Committee have been released. Just after reading the first term, it was very clear that the committee will study the need for Telangana instead of when to grant Telangana! Just the first term was enough for the activitsts of Telangana to mouth off and then call for another bandh! TRS announced immediate resignations. Thankfully, congress and TDP leaders are treading a little carefully on this matter. For now, all that I know is that there is more violence in store!

4. A full 3 weeks after India proposed talks to Pakistan, the "great neighbour" has accepted the offer. Please note that they "accepted" after 3 weeks. All along, they sat on our head to talk, and when we propose, they take 3 weeks. Hey, but that's ok. We will swallow all their rhetoric, insults and hate mongering. For our PM is decent and he can do no wrong.

5. Have consciously avoided writing about the way media crawled this whole of last week, vis-a-vis many issues, for it merits a separate blog piece! Next week :). That's all, your honour!

So many points, so little time!: Dec 6-12

1. Nearly at the stroke of midnight, (precisely aroung 11:45pm on December 9th, so that Madam's birthday is not missed), Home Minister P.Chidambaram announces thus: The process of intitiation of a separate state of Telangana will begin. Within the hour, KCR called off his fast, drank lime juice, cried in front of the media, and thanked one and all. All through the night all pro-telangana activists celebrated, and while their "success" was just beginning to sink in early on December 10th, the people of Andhra and Rayalseema region woke up to the shocking announcement of Chidambaram playing on the TV. And then all hell broke lose! Slowly, MLA's from all parties started resigning that by the end of the day, about 100 MLA's resigned. A few MP's also resigned. Public outcry began in Andhra and Rayalseema regions. Students took out protest rallies. Hooligans had their own field time, breaking as many buses as possible. Now, the story was not formation of Telangana but the unrest and the political turmoil the state has plunged into. And then slowly over the next two days, it was clear that even the CM of the state was not kept in the loop about the announcement! All along, the congress folks have been doing a "Madam bhajan" with the CM himself leading the pack. The anger over Madam's sudden decision was plain palpable across the state for ignoring the aspirations of the rest of the state, while giving inhe demands of KCR, just because he went fasting.

The crisis did not spare TDP too. More than half of their MLA's resigned too, and Chandrababu Naidu had to go on full defensive to explain the action of his MLAs. The midnight announcement without even the CM knowing also kind of brought back the "Telugu pride" slogan of the early 1980's. Only difference was that there is no NTR around :(. Taking nice advantage of this situation, MLAs of PRP, who have been waiting for a nice opportunity to resign, put in their papers too. With so many MLAs out, why would the ministers want to stay back? So now, ministers from Andhra and Rayalseema want to quit! CM got so much vexed, that he just went home and took rest, leaving everything to Madam. This kind of constitutional crisis was never witnessed before, but the policy of Madam is to again wait and watch, hoping that this violence and demands will subside on their own. Sycophant congress leaders even announced that this was Madam's birthday gift to the people of Telangana, but three days down the line, no one really cares about her birthday anymore. The buck has to stop at her door (oops, I said the unthinkable!), and the wait and watch policy is just spelling disaster for the state. Buck up madam, for unfortunately our CM is just waiting for guidance from you to run our state.

2. Amidst all this, news about the arrest and chargesheeting of David Headley in the US took a backseat. Within two months of arresting him, charges have been framed in a US court for being an accomplice in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. His story is astonishing to say the least. Born to a Pakistani father and a US mother, David Headly a.ka. Daood Gilani was an under cover operative of the dreaded LeT and was actively involved in the planning of many terror attacks. The US courts might finish the trial and sentencening sooner than we complete our work on Ajmal Kasab here! If David Headley wants to live longer, he should perhaps request for trial by an Indian court!

3. I haven't read too much about the climate change topic, but the summit at Copenhagen seems to be heading towards a disaster! A leaked draft text confirmed the fears of many developing countries that the developed countries(read the US) are trying to impose unfair restrictions, and the draft has been rejected summarily. A recent investigative report also showed how data was manipulated to create the hype about Climate change too. Will just wait for the summit to end this week, to do some more reading :)

4. Well, Indian test team won the series against Srilanka 2-0 and is now the top ranked team in the world ( Please note that World here means 9 test playing countries:) ).

Style and Substance...

Today's article by Praveen Swami in The Hindu is one of his best pieces. He convincingly calls the government's bluff and also takes a dig at national TV media. Must read.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/27/stories/2009112756190900.htm

One year later...

The Good:

1. No terror attacks since last year
2. Regional centres set up for NSG
3. Increased vigilance, with policemen constantly on their toes

The Bad:

1. Investigations leading to nowher.
2. Pakistan is playing around with us as if nothing had happened. We gave them 7 dossiers so far, and yet they shamelessly say - not enough evidence!
3. The Prime Minister almost compromised in Egypt with Pakistan, before public backlash prevented him from going any further.
4. No one in the entire system has been held accountable for multiple terror attacks in the country.
5. Kith and kin of victims are raising many questions, but government is just ignoring the questions.
6. R R Patil is back as Home Minister of Maharasthra
7. Vilasrao Deshmukh is now Union Cabinet Minister
8. It might be trivial to many people, but it bothers me a lot that the Prime Minister of this country has chosen to be out of the country for the first anniversary of 26/11. At a time when he has to address the nation and update the citizens of this country about the progress made since last year with the investigations; at a time when he should be visiting Mumbai and be talking to the kith and kin of the victims of the carnage, he chose to be out of the country trying to ink the nuclear deal (which by the way is still not done). This image in today's Hindu speaks says it all.

The Ugly:

1. Ajmal Kasab is STILL alive and kicking, making demands for biryani too. It is a shame that we have not been able to hang him yet.
2. Worst part is that we don't know when he will be hanged!

Stagnant Policy ...

• In November 2005, my first letter on the topic of India’s policy with regard to terrorism was published in The Hindu.
• Earlier in July 2005, I had written about the West’s unclear policy with regard to terrorism here.
• In 2006, I had again written about India’s flip flop regarding peace process.
• Later in 2007, I wrote about the then Home Minister’s innovative statements each time there was an attack.
• And finally in 2008 about Zardari’s hollow claims!

Though the content in each of the letters is different, the intent in all these letters was the same – how long is our foreign policy going to remain as stagnant as this?

Take the latest instance. From the day Mumbai was attacked, day in and day out, we were told that we will not talk to Pakistan. And then suddenly, we hear news that our Prime Minister might meet Pakistan’s President next week in Russia. And that too at a time when Pakistan released the mastermind behind Mumbai and many other terror attacks.

When I first heard the news of Hafeez Saeed’s release, I thought it was the court’s fault and maybe we should not blame Pakistan for it. But when I read the reason for this release, I was plain baffled.

After detaining a person, the police is supposed to let him know in 15 days explaining why he was detained. Can you believe that the government did not follow this rule, and therefore he was let off!!!

Here’s more shocking news. When the notice was served finally, there were no specific charges mentioned against Saeed in it. The notice talked about the UN ban on Saeed’s outfit, JuD (formerly LeT) had links with Al-Qaeda and… that’s it! Nowhere was a mention made that JuD is involved in Mumbai attacks.

And here’s the most shocking news of all. The court then asks the government lawyer, has the Al-Qaeda been declared a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, and guess the answer – NO!!! The Court therefore held that LeT having link with Al-Qaeda is not an offense! Read the full story on rediff here.

And we are willing to talk to this country at this juncture! We have neither bought this glaring glitch to the notice of those who can pressurize Pakistan, nor have we been able to achieve anything substantial in limiting Pakistan’s role in terrorist activity. That country is burning now, and every blast in that country is of its own doing. This is the moment when we try to impress to the whole world that Pakistan is itself responsible for the chaos. Yet, somehow we miss that opportunity.

Instead, we are told that we accept the reality and are willing to pursue the path of dialogue. Why don’t we just accept the reality that there is no credible leader in Pakistan and we have to come up with alternate strategies? Why are we making a fool of ourselves by saying “we will not talk” on one day, and saying the exact opposite, literally, the very next day?

Our whole foreign policy in recent years has just centered on the Nuclear Deal and trying to please the US. Read this article in The Hindu, on how so many of our companies have lost out business in Iran.

After so many years, I am still confused as to what our Prime Minister means when he says we will adopt a “zero tolerance on terror”. We have lacked a clear political direction in the ministry of external affairs. The show has primarily been run by the Foreign Secretary and the NSA, and by the time the new Foreign Minister gets a grip of happenings in the ministry, we would have missed another bus.

By the way, Outlook magazine has called the new External Affairs minister as the right man for the job because he is “suave, urbane and western educated”! Wow – when did job requirements get so simple?! I got a feeling of déjà vu after reading that – a la Shivraj Patil!